Happy Halloween 2025

"Trick or Treat!"

Someone's trick or treating in the wrong neighbourhood! Be careful out there, kids!

'Archie Bunker' on That Important Difference

"Respect is for the dead. The livin' need dough!"

"LOL" is my only response.

ReDVD: Magical Mystery Tour (The Beatles)

A few years ago I found out that my Beatles-fan brother had not yet seen a certain 1967 television opus. I asked why he hadn't sought out that essential slice of Fab Four 'merchandise'.

"I'm afraid I'll be disappointed."

This Beatles fan, if not quite "fanatical", enjoyed the group's first foray into "personal filmmaking". While this Magical Mystery Tour might not exactly be magical, it has its appeal for some of us.

"They're coming to take me away!"

Willingly I went along for the bus ride, sharing the "coach", as they call tour buses in the UK, with an assortment of interesting and odd characters. Through the frequent stops in various towns, villages, and fields, the crowd's buffoonery becomes the scenery. The production involved a lot of made-up shenanigans, and at times it shows. There is that unscripted "let's just have fun" vibe to most of the 53-minute running time. And there are those great Beatles songs to give the picture some solid ground, even if a lyric mentions a walrus and we see a "walrus", and a line speaks of a "fool on the hill" and what we get is Paul McCartney playing not so much a fool, but a bored-looking bloke standing still — on a hill.

Though critics at the time of MMT's original television showing in December of 1967 complained of being bored stiff, today's rearview mirror of some 50-plus years rates the flick as an interesting, if not exactly absorbing, artifact. Unique among the telly tableau of the mid-sixties, the Beatles-authored experimental film certainly plays better today... though many fans now still list this particular, and perhaps peculiar, creative tour as a rare Fab Four trip.

The DVD contains a few extra features: I'm interested to hear what Magical Mystery Tour booking agent and organizer Paul McCartney has to say....

Postscript: In the mid-sixties, the vast majority of British households had monochromatic (black-and-white) television sets. As the flick was shot in colour, and done so with little or no regard for that spectral fact, a lot of visual tricks, like picture "posterization", were lost, and appeared to viewers as shades-of-gray mush instead of the intended creative splash of chromatics. This unfortunate anomaly did not cast any magic spell on the BBC1 audience, that Boxing Day evening of 1967.

Magical Mystery Tour

Made by

The Beatles

EMI Records Limited

2012

A Forever Question: Ahead Warp Factor Nine

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Why is the concept of time travel dismissed as an impossibility given that we're always travelling forward in time most efficiently?

Picturing: On the Road Is On the Table

A friend of mine is a bit of a Jack Kerouac fan. After I told him I was reading On the Road, he said he preferred the author's next book, The Subterraneans. As I had to resort to speed reading On the Road, due to the fact that my copy was borrowed from the Toronto Public Library, and could not be renewed as someone had put a reservation on it, I couldn't quite "get into it".

Now that I have my own copy of Kerouac's 1957 classic American novel, I can take my time and enjoy the travels of 'Sal Paradise' — I think I knew that guy — then graduate to the highly recommended The Subterraneans (1958).

Postscript: My copy was drawn from one of the many discount tables at BMV Books here in Toronto, specifically the location on Bloor Street, just a few minutes walk west from Spadina Avenue. This store chain is highly recommended to those readers visiting this great city.

Book: Totally Tasteless (Richard Marson)

Totally Tasteless

― The Life of John Nathan-Turner ―

by

Richard Marson

Miwk Publishing Ltd.

2016

***

When John Nathan-Turner executive produced Doctor Who from 1980 to its cancellation in 1989, I had more or less abandoned watching the long-running British science fiction series, certainly as a regular viewer. WNED (the PBS affiliate in Buffalo, NY) ran Who in the early 1980s, and I did catch a few of the episodes governed by "JNT", so I was aware of him and the changes he made: some controversial, some essential ― getting rid of Tom Baker, who had become intractable.

In 2018 I ordered the book, and when it hit my front door I wasted no time in absorbing its many pages. For some reason I did not write a review. That must change, but first I'll have to do an essential reread as it's been a few years.

Totally Tasteless: The Life of John Nathan-Turner is a captivating, absorbing, and detailed document on a complicated man and television producer. Author Richard Marson created an important work, certainly for "Whovians" and for those who are interested in television production and its politics. It is a brilliant biography, and a fascinating look into the BBC of the 1980s.

The original cover, a photograph of John Nathan-Turner, was much better than that horrible one seen above, and the one gracing the cover of my copy. To make the issue worse, the revised title of "Totally Tasteless" is just that. Why would the book's publisher, the late Miwk Publishing, change the original "JN-T: The Life and Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner" to a trashy tabloid type?

Fun Note: I ordered the book directly from the publisher, and received it promptly... then a few days later I received a second copy. I contacted Miwk, and the gent (bloke) who responded said that a label must have been printed twice; perhaps the label sheet jammed in the printer and the fulfillment crew didn't catch the repeated-name error. I offered to send it back, but received the suggestion that I pass it on to someone who might like the book. So I did just that: I gave Totally Tasteless: The Life of John Nathan-Turner to a major Whovian friend. A year or two later I asked him what he thought. He hadn't yet read it. I'm hardly a big DW fan. My interest is more... academic. (Insert snicker.)

CD: UFO (Barry Gray)

On Tuesday nights during the 1970/71 television season I was there with my parents in front of the 19-inch Zenith colour set tuned to Canada's CTV network; more correctly, Toronto station CFTO, "Channel 9" — CTV's flagship station. British husband and wife producing team Gerry and Sylvia Anderson left their "Supermarionation" puppet show empire behind to launch UFO, a live-action science fiction series set on the moon's surface and here on good ol' Earth, principally in England. "U-Fo" was superior in many areas: one being the music department.

Barry Gray had long been the producers' main scorer, and his efforts for this short-lived dramatic programme were top-drawer, injecting just the right amount of funky Hammond organ fun ― dig that wonderfully spot-on opening theme tune ― and otherworldly bizarreness and genuine heartbreak. While the series could be silly at times, with some episodes seemingly asking, "What were we thinking?", when UFO was good, it was more than good. (The episodes "A Question of Priorities", "Sub-Smash", and "Confetti Check A-O.K.", for example, were great, and more than made up for eps such as the bizarrely bad "Close Up".) Its background music was no small contributor, certainly in a telly-series out of this world, even when based here on Sol III.

The perfect capper to any UFO episode, especially one ending on a particularly serious note, was Gray's dissonant and creepy end title music ― not only did it reinforce a sense of darkness that tended to pervade the show format, it functioned as a fitting counterpoint to the (then) contemporary vibes of the opening title theme.

End note: This CD of a 72-minute total running time is a fine sampling of episode scores; around five hours of music was recorded for UFO. The recordings are in stereo and are of a high standard.

***

UFO

- Original Television Soundtrack -

Music by

Barry Gray

Silva Screen Records

2019

Picturing: Reopened Graveyard Shift Contact Sheet

Reopening my 'Graveyard Shift' files a few years ago sent me back to 1985, as I reviewed photos, memos, call sheets, and sketches related to that film's production. Affixed above is a partial contact sheet of photographs I took right before commencement of the 'graveyard set' shoot.

In the summer of 1985 I was hired to design and build a... graveyard set. (Actually, I was first hired to build a miniature for a script that ended up being unproduced; the script and project changed.) My workshop was on King Street West in downtown Toronto. The studio was on George Street. I also painted designs on 'flats' for a party scene.

Graveyard Shift was released in the States as Central Park Drifter.

The bottom right photograph is of the late Tim Mogg, the talented special-makeup artist who went on to enjoy a prolific career (as did Darren Perks, who is not pictured on this sheet).

Postscript: Director Jerry Ciccoritti, producer Michael Bockner, cinematographer Robert Bergman, and production manager Peter Boboras were all great to work with. Special thanks to Peter for hiring me, especially so given the fact that I was about to start my second year of film school.

Picturing: Me at the Graveyard Shift Workshop

When we were young, spirited, energized, and full of stamina: while I was a few months into my second year of film school I was hired to design and build a mausoleum set for a low-budget Toronto-produced horror feature film called Graveyard Shift.

My workshop was located in the labyrinthian, and long-abandoned, old Massey Ferguson factory complex on King Street West. It was cozy warm, fairly small, but just the right place where my helpers — Chris Leger, Dave Fiacconi, Mark Lang — and I could build our low-budget, but ultimately effective on screen, set piece. (The set's materials cost the production a low $450.00.)

After a day of classes, I'd don my "builders' clothing", and swing and saw.

Postscript: Jerry Ciccoritti, Graveyard Shift's director, was easy to work with as he understood art and design. When I showed him my initial set sketches at the production office, he asked me to make my mausoleum's columns more 'Ionic' than 'Doric'. I was impressed! (We ended up renting Doric columns from the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.)

Sunday Fun: Those Toronto Temps!

As I write this it's a few minutes past 1pm. Here in downtown Toronto the temperature is currently sitting at 21 Celsius (70 Fahrenheit).

It was almost that warm when I ran out early this morning to grab a Tim Hortons coffee. Now I must ask myself: "Instead of sitting here at home punching keys on my laptop, should I run out again and walk around and soak up the warm air?"

Environment Canada is predicating this great city will notch up two more degrees on the Celsius thermometer before the day is out.

I am out....

Flash Poem: Whose Flattery?

How much is too
much flattery?

It depends on who it
is you are flattering

It might fly
or lie flat.

___

2017

Simon St. Laurent

Sunday Fun: Next Week's Big KFC Fight

That's what I heard, folks, a few years ago. I was working on my laptop as the television smoked at my feet. "Next week's big KFC fight."

Kentucky Fried Chicken? ("Well, folks, he chickened out. He had not the stomach for it.")

I looked up from my computer and saw two mean-looking dudes just inches apart, sharing eye lines, staring mortars. Airing threats.

Back to my work.

I awoke the next morning to the result of the chicken fight. (People were anticipating, wagering, and watching that contest? That very idea I found really hard to digest.)

Oh. Pardon me.

I had pictured fractured legs kicking a way to that last drumstick,

crushing knuckles over the tiny tub of coleslaw,

arms swinging for a wing.

Brutes' brutality to a nutritionist's nightmare. In a fast food church.

Thinking back to "Next week's big KFC fight": I do remember getting the impression that those two dudes did not look like the type who would 'dine' at a place like KFC.

Postscript: This all reminds me that the last time I ate at KFC was in the summer of 1993. It was the location at Bloor Street West and Euclid Avenue, here in Toronto. I remember, it was a beautifully sunny and warm day. Before visiting my Film Effects coworker, I felt the need to down some salt and fat. And whatever else was in that box. Fries?

Post-postscript: While tying up this piece I decided to check that particular store location. It's now a Mary Brown's Chicken. This change must have happened fairly recently. Oh... now I can't recreate my "KFC in 1993" experience. The question is, however: Would I have had the stomach for it?

Blu-rays: Black Zero Titles of Four Ready to Go

As noted on its website: "Black Zero is a multimedia publisher specializing in Canadian experimental cinema from the 1960s to the present."

Experimental filmmaker and film scholar Stephen Broomer is its founder and bright light, and his dedication to preserving Canadian experimental films, especially those all but forgotten, is commendable and something I very much appreciate given my strong interest in the form. As a matter of interest, his book Hamilton Babylon: A History of the McMaster Film Board (University of Toronto Press, 2016) is an excellent example of the scholarly kind. This impeccable document of necessary density has the expected academic bent, but Broomer's writing style is breezy and inviting enough that it should engage those readers who might possess even the smallest interest in experimental cinema. And censorship. On that front — the courts — we Canadians fought battles of our own. (It wasn't just an "American" thing.) On that front — reading — it's quite the page turner. What happens next? What's the verdict?

Recently I picked up a few Black Zero Blu-rays, partly as a show of support, and, of course, to enjoy the disc sets' featured flicks, including their commentaries and supplementary material.

Readying to dig into:

* Green Dreams — Josephine Massarella

* Slow Run — Larry Kardish

* A Man Whose Life Was Full of Woe Has Been Surprised by Joy — R. Bruce Elder

* Everything Everywhere Again Alive — Keith Lock

Enjoy!

Believe me, I will....

***

“(Canadian experimental cinema) has a finer vibration, a finer density, a finer matter.”

— Jonas Mekas, 1968

NFB Film: Test Pilot (1957) — Starring James Doohan!

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has uploaded to YouTube a wonderful selection of their old film shorts. One such film, from 1957, is titled Test Pilot, and its twenty-nine minutes are pretty wonderful, certainly for those folk who find such material engaging. And it stars one James Doohan, "Scotty" from Star Trek. (Hearing him say the word "engineers" several times... well, you know. If he only knew then that in a few years hence he would fly to the stars, and fame.) During World War II, Doohan flew observation aircraft while serving with the Royal Canadian Artillery.

"Dave Frost" works as a company (Avro Canada) test pilot; his job is to test various aircraft functions and potential capabilities. As with any job where one is a test pilot for a high-performance aircraft, there is always that risk, that possibility that something might and can go wrong. These pilots are of a special breed: recreational flyers, they are not.

Test Pilot's angle of attack is typical of a late 1950s short film, one with an educational bent. The acting is fine, especially from that famed starship engineer, and the filmmaking sound, which is to be expected from the NFB, old or new. The short-subject was shot primarily on 35mm black-and-white film but contains a few 16mm-35mm "blow-up" sections: some of the aerial photography was captured on the smaller film format, no doubt due to its extra portability. I was somewhat surprised that the filmmakers didn't mount a dashboard camera. That "pilot's point of view" would have given the aircraft climb some extra dimension, even if the viewer would have been treated to little more than clear skies and perhaps a few cloud formations.

 

The featured flying machine: the Avro Canada CF-100 "Canuck" was a great aircraft, an all-weather twin-engine jet-powered interceptor/fighter operated by the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force). It served in that role from 1952 to 1961. However, the air force used the 100 for other roles before retiring the type in 1981. (The Belgian Air Force also bought and operated a few examples.) When I lived in CFB Borden a "Clunk" was parked in a holding area not far from our PMQ (Private Married Quarters). It may have been a static training example... or just forgotten. By the way, my dad worked on the CF-100 as an armourer. (When Test Pilot was produced he had already been serving with the RCAF for a few years — and would serve for many more.) A few years ago, while visiting the wonderful Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, I sat in a beautiful CF-100. One is allowed to sit in the machine, with a little help from the museum's terrific staff, of course. (Military-aviation buffs would enjoy visiting the CWHM. It's located at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Mount Hope, Ontario, Canada. The selection of aircraft is wide and varied.)

Test Pilot was directed by Fergus McDonell, and written by Arthur Hailey, who, the year before, scripted the CBC live-to-air television play, Flight into Danger, starring... James Doohan.

Postscript: Flight into Danger was produced by Sydney Newman, who, after that production was bought by the BBC and aired in the UK, went on to create The Avengers for ABC Weekend TV, and co-create Doctor Who for the BBC. Scribe Arthur Hailey went on to co-write the Flight into Danger-inspired 1957 feature film, Zero Hour!, which, years later, was adapted as the 1980 comedy flick, Airplane! He went on to great literary-pulp fame with his novels, Hotel (1965), and... Airport (1968), which was then adapted for the big screen and released to movie theatres in 1970. Airport was a big box office hit. I remember well the endlessly replayed television adverts.

Those Crazy Canadians and Their Flying Machines....

Athot for the Day: Strange Matter

Cats are caught in that twilight zone between acting like a cat and being a cat.

Picturing: Finch Avenue West, Toronto, Early Evening

My Canon EOS R100 camera data:

ISO speed: 250

F-stop: f/5.6

Exposure time: 1/125

Sunday Happiness: Toronto's Gleam & Sip Visited

As I wrote on Sunday, August 31st, four weeks ago today, I stumbled upon a shop here in Toronto's beautiful "Annex" neighborhood:

Gleam & Sip

Matcha * Espresso * Bar

Vegan & Gluten Free Bakery

This morning I made my first dedicated visit.

I ordered a coffee and an organic oatmeal cookie. Both were very good. Also, the young gent who served me was polite and courteous. Great customer service skills are most appreciated. Coffees and cookies are just half of one's experience at such a store.

What made me happy was seeing that I was not alone, as there were other patrons. It's nice to see a small business enjoy traffic flow. As friendly neighbours, we must support our local businesses.

On my way out I took note of the cozy little patio. Toronto's been experiencing "patio weather"....

Battle of Britain 85th: Battle of Britain Day 1990

The poster said all I had to know. On September 15, 1990, there would be a celebration to remember on the River Thames. That of "Battle of Britain Day, 1990". This World War Two history buff did not plan his trip to coincide with the event, but through a quirk of fate I happened to be in London, England, and would be be able to attend the fireworks.

I stood among a large crowd on the river's south bank, metres upstream from Tower Bridge. The sky darkened, the vintage searchlights fired up, probing and irradiating a low cloud ceiling. All that was missing was the drone of unseen Heinkel, Dornier, and Junkers aircraft. The Blitz was terrible for London's denizens throughout the summer of 1940, so nobody was celebrating the act of war, but the repelling of invaders... German "Luftwaffe" bombers. (Since there had been no definitive and crippling blows to the Royal Air Force, necessary if "Unternehmen Seelöwe" [Operation Sea Lion], the invasion of England, was to have any chance of succeeding, Adolf Hitler lost interest and turned his attention to the east.)

Music blazed from sparking loudspeakers as fireworks of all colours and stripes rose streaking from a barge anchored to the sparkling waters before us. For many Brits here, this sight and sound must have been emotional. I too was feeling it: Composer Ron Goodwin's magnificent themes for the films Battle of Britain and 633 Squadron were the perfect accompaniment, and helped lift us all up high. (Aces High!)

That event was the 50th anniversary of the great battles fought in the skies over England. Now we're at the 85th. Time flies.

Battle of Britain 85th: Book on the Battle

The Battle of Britain

- The Greatest Battle in the History of Air Warfare -

by

Richard Townshend Bickers

Salamander Books Ltd

1999

Battle of Britain 85th: Battle of Britain (1969)

Battle of Britain was a troubled feature film production complete with massive cost overruns and a shoot that seemed to have no end, this historical aviation epic provides some satisfaction for those movie fans who want to see a breed of filmmaking that will never be seen again. No film company today could afford to make a film like Battle of Britain, at least not one using exclusively the same production methods ― much of it would be done using fake CG fakery, by people who've never taken the time to see how an aircraft, like a Spitfire or Heinkel, twists and turns in the sky. (Try YouTube.) As far as the film as a film goes: It depends on whether the viewer can enjoy a 132-minute story about a critical moment of history. The Royal Air Force's warding off of the mighty German Luftwaffe during the summer of 1940.

What one sees are grand air battles and an abundance of name-actors (at that time, of course). Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Curt Jurgens, Robert Shaw, and Trevor Howard are a few of those stars who play historical characters or 'average people' swept up in that pesky thing we humans almost never ask for but often get: War. In this case World War II.

A highlight of many: "The Battle in the Air." It makes me a firm believer in cinema's capabilities.

Kudos must go to director Guy Hamilton (1922 - 2016) for giving a somewhat unwieldy story, one with necessary density, some personality; and for remembering the people, who are so often forgotten in these epics.